Measuring parity in baseball

[kenmeister]

As a fun little project, I thought I'd go back since 2012 and create a spreadsheet to measure parity in baseball. I was thinking of awarding points to each team as follows:

 

1. Winning 90+ games but missing playoffs - 1 point
   
2. Making the Wild Card game but losing it - 2 points
   
3. Making the Division Series but losing it - 3 points
   
4. Making the League Championship Series but losing it - 4 points
   
5. Making the World Series but losing it - 5 points
   
6. Winning the World Series - 6 points
   

 

If I went back further it gets tricky because there wasn't a wild card game.

 

Thoughts on the point structure? Thoughts on how to include both before and after wild card game years?

[moonslav59]

As a fun little project, I thought I'd go back since 2012 and create a spreadsheet to measure parity in baseball. I was thinking of awarding points to each team as follows:

 

1. Winning 90+ games but missing playoffs - 1 point
   
2. Making the Wild Card game but losing it - 2 points
   
3. Making the Division Series but losing it - 3 points
   
4. Making the League Championship Series but losing it - 4 points
   
5. Making the World Series but losing it - 5 points
   
6. Winning the World Series - 6 points
   

 

If I went back further it gets tricky because there wasn't a wild card game.

 

Thoughts on the point structure? Thoughts on how to include both before and after wild card game years?

 

I might add this:

 

1 pt for 82 wins

1 more point for 91 wins

1 more for 101 wins

[kenmeister]

I might add this:

 

1 pt for 82 wins

1 more point for 91 wins

1 more for 101 wins

 

Given that the points for wins kind of take care of the wild card game anyway, it could be:

 

1. Winning 82 games - 1 point
   
2. Winning 91 games - 1 point
   
3. Winning 101 games - 1 point
   
4. Making the Division Series - 1 point
   
5. Making the Championship Series - 1 point
   
6. Making the World Series - 1 point
   
7. Winning the World Series - 1 point
   

 

So a World Series winner will vary from 5-7 points based on their regular season win total. And this way I can go back before 2012.

[bkzwhitestrican]

How about negative values for losing seasons too?

 

Losing 82 games - (-1) point

Losing 91 games - (-1) point

Losing 101 games - (-1) point

 

Otherwise a team who finishes one year with 82 wins and then another with 50 wins would have a higer score than a team that finishes with 80 wins two seasons in a row.

Edited November 1, 2019 by bkzwhitestrican

[illinoisredsox]

I also wouldn't go back too far. Results from the 80s are really not relevant at this point; spending rules have changed, luxury tax, etc.

 

Maybe stick with this century.

 

And our sane Yankee backer above has a good point about losing seasons being taken into account; just off the top of my head it would impact the Astros ranking as they several horrific years early this decade while they were building their current juggernaut.

 

Might tweak the win totals slightly though. 82-80 gets a point while 80-82 loses one, even though they are virtually the same season? Maybe with a 60-65-75-85-95-100 split, or something like it.